Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is recognized as one of the greatest health threats facing modern medicine. There is, as yet, no cure for this disease. In 1983-1984, three groups independently identified the suspected etiological agent of AIDS. See, e.g., Barre-Sinoussi et al. (1983) Science 220:868-871; Montagnier et al., in Human T-Cell Leukemia Viruses (Gallo, Essex & Gross, eds., 1984); Vilmer et al. (1984) The Lancet 1:753; Popovic et al. (1984) Science 224:497-500; Levy et al. (1984) Science 225:840-842. These isolates were variously called lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV), human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III), or AIDS-associated retrovirus (ARV). All of these isolates are strains of the same virus, and were later collectively named Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). With the isolation of a related AIDS-causing virus, the strains originally called HIV are now termed HIV-1 and the related virus is called HIV-2 See, e.g., Guyader et al. (1987) Nature 326:662-669; Brun-Vezinet et al. (1986) Science 233:343-346; Clavel et al. (1986) Nature 324:691-695.
A great deal of information has been gathered about the HIV virus, however, to date an effective vaccine has not been identified. Several targets for vaccine development have been examined including the env and gag gene products encoded by HIV. gag gene products include, but are not limited to, Gag-polymerase and Gag-protease. env gene products include, but are not limited to, monomeric gp120 polypeptides, oligomeric gp140 polypeptides and gp160 polypeptides
Haas, et al., (Current Biology 6(3):315-324, 1996) suggested that selective codon usage by HIV-1 appeared to account for a substantial fraction of the inefficiency of viral protein synthesis. Andre, et al., (J. Virol. 72(2):1497-1503, 1998) described an increased immune response elicited by DNA vaccination employing a synthetic gp120 sequence with modified codon usage. Schneider, et al., (J Virol. 71(7):4892-4903, 1997) discuss inactivation of inhibitory (or instability) elements (INS) located within the coding sequences of the Gag and Gag-protease coding sequences.
The Gag proteins of HIV-1 are necessary for the assembly of virus-like particles. HIV-1 Gag proteins are involved in many stages of the life cycle of the virus including, assembly, virion maturation after particle release, and early post-entry steps in virus replication. The roles of HIV-1 Gag proteins are numerous and complex (Freed, E.G., Virology 251:1-15, 1998).
Wolf, et al., (PCT International Application, WO 96/30523, published 3 Oct. 1996; European Patent Application, Publication No. 0 449 116 Al, published 2 Oct. 1991) have described the use of altered pr55 Gag of HIV-1 to act as a non-infectious retroviral-like particulate carrier, in particular, for the presentation of immunologically important epitopes. Wang, et al., (Virology 200:524-534, 1994) describe a system to study assembly of HIV Gag-β-galactosidase fusion proteins into virions. They describe the construction of sequences encoding HIV Gag-β-galactosidase fusion proteins, the expression of such sequences in the presence of HIV Gag proteins, and assembly of these proteins into virus particles.
Shiver, et al., (PCT International Application, WO 98/34640, published 13 Aug. 1998) described altering HIV-1 (CAM1) gag coding sequences to produce synthetic DNA molecules encoding HIV Gag and modifications of HIV Gag. The codons of the synthetic molecules were codons preferred by a projected host cell.
Recently, use of HIV Env polypeptides in immunogenic compositions has been described. (see, U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,546 to Hurwitz et al., issued Dec. 8, 1998, describing immunogenic compositions comprising a mixture of at least four different recombinant virus that each express a different HIV Env variant; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,313 to Vahlne et al., issued Nov. 24, 1998, describing peptides which correspond to epitopes of the HIV-1 gp120 protein). In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,731 to Sia et al, issued Mar. 2, 1999 describes candidate vaccines against HIV comprising an amino acid sequence of a T-cell epitope of Gag linked directly to an amino acid sequence of a B-cell epitope of the V3 loop protein of an HIV-1 isolate containing the sequence GPGR (SLQ ID NO: 150). There remains a need for antigenic HIV polypeptides, particularly Type C isolates.